The Pursuit
of Sexual Happiness - Newsweek, 9/29/09 - "We learn
that 31 percent of women have had sex to evoke jealousy in the ones they love,
while others have done it to protect themselves from getting hurt. Some, like
the 25-year-old woman we described earlier, have had sex to boost their
self-esteem, and 84 percent of women report they've done it simply to "keep the
peace" at home. "I think the stereotype tends to be that women have sex for love
and men have sex for pleasure," says Meston, director of the Sexual
Psychophysiology Lab at UT Austin. "But in reality, women's sexual motivations
are vastly complex.""

Diabetes
Weakens Your Bones - Science Daily, 9/28/09 - "They
observed increased levels of inflammatory molecules, including TNF-α during
fracture healing. The diabetic animals had
rapid loss of cartilage in the healing bones,
which was due to increased numbers of osteoclasts, cells that remove bone and
cartilage. Factors that stimulate osteoclast formation were regulated by both
TNF-α and a downstream mediator, FOXO1. These results suggest that
diabetes-mediated increases in TNF-α and FOXO1 may underlie the impaired healing
of diabetic fractures"

H1N1 Flu Season Hits U.S. Early; Swine Flu in 26 States - Time Magazine,
9/25/09 - "By Thursday morning, nine of the area's
roughly 300 schools were reporting absentee rates in excess of 10%. H1N1 had
arrived with the end of summer, just as expected ... This would be comparable to
what we would see in a moderate flu season in January or February"

Antidepressants Linked to Birth Defect - WebMD, 9/24/09 -
"the risk is greatest when moms-to-be take more than one
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant or switch SSRIs
early in pregnancy ... babies born to women who had filled prescriptions for
more than one SSRI had a fourfold increase in septal heart defects -- a
malformation of the wall that divides the left and right sides of the heart"

Diabetes
Drug Shows Promise In Fighting Lethal Cancer Complication - Science Daily,
9/24/09 - "in an animal study, a diabetes drug that
promotes insulin sensitivity slowed the progression of muscle wasting and fat
loss, the main consequences of a syndrome called cachexia ... Research suggests
that cachexia is responsible for between one-fifth and one-third of all
cancer deaths ... These data provide evidence
that in mice with colon cancer tumors, insulin resistance may be involved in the
development of cachexia rather than occur as a result of cachexia ... Within
eight days, the mice with cancer receiving the
rosiglitazone showed
more sensitivity to insulin than did the mice with tumors that received no
medication. The insulin sensitivity of the medicated mice matched that of mice
without tumors ... In addition to stopping fat and muscle loss, the
rosiglitazone also dramatically reduced two biological markers present when
proteins break down, particularly in muscles, and a third marker that indicates
cells are eating their own amino acids in an attempt to survive" - Note:
I don't know why they did this study with
rosiglitazone.
That's the one that may be connected to heart disease.
Pioglitazone is the same
class of drug and is not connected to heart disease. I take it for
anti-aging also. See my Insulin and
Aging page.

Shots beat
back the flu much better than spray - Cold and flu- msnbc.com, 9/23/09 -
"In a study of nearly 2,000 healthy adults during a
recent flu season, standard shots were twice as effective against regular winter
flu as the newer nasal spray" - Note:
For what it's worth, I read or viewed somewhere (I think it was Sunday's
Dr. Rosenfeld) that the shot contains dead viruses and the spray contains
weakened viruses.

Gout Drug May Lower Blood Pressure - WebMD, 9/23/09 -
"A new study suggests a direct link between a
high-sugar diet and
high blood pressure ... allopurinol could
lower high blood pressure by lowering uric acid"
- Note: Kind of a confusing article. Yeah, high blood sugar probably
is a cause of high blood pressure and high uric acid but the article implies
that allopurinol lowers blood pressure by lowering the uric acid not the blood
sugar so why is it discussing blood sugar? I've written WebMD before
about articles like that and they've agreed and changed it. This one is
minor I guess.

Coffee
may protect against oral cancers - MSNBC, 1/6/09 -
"drinking coffee lowers the risk of developing cancer of the oral cavity or
throat ... cancer of the mouth, pharynx and esophagus .... Compared with
people who did not drink coffee, those who drank one or more cups per day
had half the risk of developing these cancers ... the reduction in risk
included people who are at high risk for these cancers, namely, those who
were current drinkers and/or smokers at the start of the study"

As
Head And Neck Cancer Risks Evolve, More Treatment Options Emerge -
Science Daily, 9/10/08 - "a compound from green tea
enhances the effects of a FDA-approved drug (erlotinib) against head and
neck cancer cells in animals, suggesting that it could work similarly in
humans. The results are published in the September issue of International
Journal of Cancer ... More than two-thirds of patients come to doctors with
locally and regionally advanced disease, and their prognoses are dismal ...
But head and neck cancers are potentially curable when diagnosed at an early
stage" - Note: I took about 8 capsules of green tea extract per day
when I had
my neck cancer. Maybe that's one
of the things that save me.

Glycemic index, glycemic load and thyroid cancer risk - Ann Oncol. 2007
Oct 19 - "Compared with the lowest tertile, the ORs
in subsequent tertiles were 1.68 and 1.73 for GI, and 1.76 and 2.17 for GL.
The OR for highest tertile of GI compared with lowest one was 1.70 for
papillary and 1.57 for follicular thyroid cancer. The ORs for GL were 2.17
for papillary and 3.33 for follicular thyroid cancer ... Our study shows
that high dietary levels of GI and GL are associated with thyroid cancer
risk"

Vitamin E: Friend or Foe During Radiation Therapy? - Physician's Weekly,
7/16/07 - "Not only did it show that vitamin E
supplementation was of no benefit to patients, but it was also associated
with a nearly 40% increased risk of death when compared to study
counterparts who received a placebo. Vitamin E, despite what patients may
think, appears to be much more harmful for patients who have head and neck
cancer who are receiving radiation therapy"

Should Young Men Be Vaccinated With Gardasil®? - Medscape, 8/24/09 -
"Gardasil® safety and immunogenicity trials included
9- to 15-year-old boys and demonstrated a robust immunologic response in
this population. If efficacy in males is demonstrated in clinical trials, it
is likely that vaccination may be recommended for prevention of anogenital
warts (and, indirectly, infection and anogenital neoplasia and warts in
partners); a subset of anal, penile, oral, and head and neck cancers; and
juvenile respiratory papillomatosis in their children"

Low
Prevalence Of HPV Infection May Be Tied To Poor Prognosis For Blacks With
Head And Neck Cancer - Science Daily, 7/29/09 -
"Only 4 percent of black patients with squamous cell carcinoma in the study
were HPV-positive, compared with 34 percent of white patients. The median
overall survival was more than three-fold higher for whites (70.6 months)
than for blacks (20.9 months) who were treated with chemotherapy and
radiation. Dr. Cullen says the survival rate at five years for HPV-positive
patients was about 85 percent, compared to 35 percent for HPV-negative
patients. Survival was similar for HPV-negative patients, regardless of
race. The study's findings confirm that HPV infection relates specifically
to a type of head and neck cancer -- cancer of the oropharynx, which include
the tonsils, soft palate and base of the tongue ... Overall, about 25
percent of head and neck cancers are tied to HPV infection"

Sharp Increase In HPV-positive Tonsil Cancer Found - Science Daily,
4/2/09 - "Because the tumours produce so few
symptoms, patients seek medical care when the disease is relatively
advanced, often after the tumours have spread to the lymph glands of the
throat, possibly making the prognosis much worse ... More recent studies,
however, have demonstrated a link between HPV and tonsil cancer, so that
today an HPV infection is also one of the established risk factors ... Since
1970, the cumulative incidence of HPV-positive tonsil cancer has increased
from 23 to 93 per cent"

ABC
News: The Oral Sex Cancer Connection - ABC News, 10/15/08 -
"These are patients that are young. They are in
their 30s and 40s. They are nonsmokers, and they don't drink alcohol ex ...
There is absolutely a link between oral sex and oral cancer" -
Click here
for the 7 minute video. I says that boys may want to get the HPV vaccine.

HPV-related oral cancers rise among younger men - baltimoresun.com,
4/14/08 - "They're men in their 40s, and even 30s,
whose cancer is brought on by the increasingly common human papillomavirus
(HPV) ... researchers now believe that the increase in certain oral cancers
can be traced to the spread of the virus through oral sex ... New studies
suggest that HPV-related oral cancer cases are on pace to eventually surpass
cases of cervical cancer in the United States ... many doctors do not
realize that they should be on the lookout for oral cancer in younger
patients ... The public is unaware of this"

Sex, Drugs, and Cancer? - WebMD, 3/11/08 - "Head
and neck cancers that were positive for HPV 16 were associated with having
more oral sex partners and smoking more marijuana ... Head and neck cancers
that were negative for HPV 16 weren't linked to sex or marijuana. Instead,
they were tied to smoking tobacco, drinking alcohol, and having poor oral
hygiene" - I know what people are thinking who have read my past
newsletters about my neck cancer scare
and no, I've never been a pot head and I've never smoked. I've was a very
light drinker, maybe two beers per week and I've always brushed my teeth at
least once per day.

Oral sex-related cancer at 30-year high - New Scientist, 2/28/08 -
"The incidence of oral cancer due to a virus
transmitted during oral sex has increased steeply over the last 30 years ...
The rise was largest among young white males, suggesting this group is more
likely to have oral sex at a younger age now than it was 20 years ago ...
What is not in doubt, says Gillison, is the need to consider giving boys the
HPV vaccine, to protect them from the disease ... These strains are also
thought to cause oral cancer, as well as penile and anal cancer"

HPV-Related Oral Cancers on the Rise in Men - oncologystat.com, 2/2/08 -
"The virus usually
associated with cervical cancer has been linked to oral cancer in men, and
is responsible for as many cases of the disease as tobacco and alcohol"

Human Papillomavirus in Cervical and Head-and-Neck Cancer - Medscape,
12/17/07 - "mounting epidemiological, molecular and
clinical evidence indicates that high-risk HPVs (especially HPV.16) account
for the development of headand-neck carcinoma in some individuals who do not
have the classical risk factors for this disease (i.e. a history of tobacco
use and/or alcohol consumption)"

Loud and clear on oral cancer - USATODAY.com, 11/25/07 -
"The most likely culprit, he says: the same strains
of human papillomavirus (HPV) that cause most cases of cervical cancer. A
likely mode of transmission is oral sex"

Human Papilloma Virus Vaccines May Decrease Chances Of Oral Cancer -
Science Daily, 8/30/07 - "oral and oropharyngeal
squamous cell carcinoma (OOSCC) have been linked to high-risk HPV strains,
the same strains that cause cervical cancer ... It's possible that oral and
oropharyngeal cancers could be reduced if vaccination were more widespread;
however, additional research is needed"

Oral Sex Implicated in Some Throat and Neck Cancers -
washingtonpost.com, 8/27/07 - "Human papillomavirus
(HPV), which is believed to be responsible for most cervical cancers, may
also be at the root of many cancers of the mouth and throat ... Previous
research has found that up to 50 percent of nonsmokers with throat and mouth
cancers were infected with HPV"